A severely disabled young girl has stunned her family by walking for the first time at the age of eight – after taking up surfing.
Little Madison Eddy, from Redruth, Cornwall, was born three months premature and had spent her entire life in a wheelchair suffering from cerebral palsy and epilepsy. But she has now been hailed a medical miracle by taking her first steps shortly after completing a six week surfing course with charity the Wave Project.
And her proud adoptive parents Margaret, 57, and Ted Eddy, 58, claim it only happened because of her increased confidence gained out at sea. Mrs Eddy said: “It was like a miracle. If you had said to me a year ago that Madi would be on a surf board in the sea, I would have said go fly a kite.
“But after going surfing with the Wave Project, she became so much more confident – and just a week after her course had finished she started walking for the first time.” Madison, from Redruth, Cornwall, was severely disabled from birth with a bleed on her brain after being born at just 23 weeks.
She could not breathe on her own, and could only be fed through a tube.